Metascore®Mixed or average reviewsbased on a weighted average of allcritic review scores.

50

out of 100

Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern

This attractive, superficial stab at biography, with Renée Zellweger in the title role, is more concerned with a lonely woman's quest for acceptance and love than with an author's worldly achievements.

60

out of 100

The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt

The problem confronting writer Richard Maltby Jr. and director Chris Noonan is that Potter lived a fairly uneventful life once you remove her success as an author.

Parents need to know that, while this film focuses on Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter's career and classic children's books, it's really aimed more at adults than kids (and the younger set will probably prefer the books). It deals with some mature themes, including the death of a loved one and disagreements between an adult child and her parents. Beatrix's mother repeatedly denigrates her desire to paint and tell stories; although her father is more encouraging, parents and child also disagree over Beatrix's choice for a husband. When a protagonist dies suddenly (off screen, from an illness), survivors show grief. Some characters drink socially, and one drinks to the point of passing out (this is treated as comedy).

Families can talk about the conflict Beatrix feels between the expectations others have for her (to be a proper wife to a man of her class) and her own ambitions (writing and illustrating books). How is her dilemma shown in the movie? How do her parents respond differently to her decisions? How does her romance with Norman help "smooth over" the potential abrasiveness of her career ambitions? What effect (if any) do modern opinions about feminism and achievement have on the way the story is told?

The good stuff

Messages: Characters are utterly well behaved, though Beatrix does resist her parents' desire that she marry within her class when she falls in love with Norman.

What to watch for

Violence: Grief is expressed when a central character dies unexpectedly (the death occurs off screen).

Sex: Discussion of proper behavior for an unmarried woman; some embarrassed dancing and gentle kissing between the central couple.

Language: Very mild: A background character refers to a "rich bastard," and another declares her own ideas about the joys of single womanhood to be "hogwash."

Consumerism: Not an issue

Drinking, drugs and smoking: Social drinking; one character passes out from drunkenness (this is treated as comedy and subversion of a mother's will).

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